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Boston Sports Villains

Boston sports history is filled with many heroes. From Williams, Russell, Bird, Orr, Brady, Ortiz, and now Brock Holt. The list of heroes goes on and on. And every hero needs a good villain. Now that JR Smith has thrown his hat into the ring of the villains list, I thought I could go over some of the greatest villains in Boston sports history.

Alex Rodriguez

Poor A-Rod. All he wanted to do was play for contender and he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. He was willing to give 15 million to play for the Sox in the winter of 2003. The trade fell through (thank goodness) and wound up switching positions to play for the Evil Empire. We all hated A-Rod strictly off of him being a Yankee but then things went up a level when he got into the famous brawl with Jason Varitek. The shot of A-Rod against the backstop after Tek shoved his mitt in his face always cracks me up. A-Rod standing there with his fake tough guy act and his hair in frosted tips is a classic image. Then in the 2004 ALCS when he slapped Bronson Arroyo’s arm and tried to claim that he was just running and revealed himself to be a cheater of the highest order. We all took glee when he got popped for performance enhancing drugs and laughed as he couldn’t even catch up to mediocre fastballs late in his career.

Bill Laimbeer

Ugh. Bill Laimbeer was the face of the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons of the 1980s. One of the dirtiest players of all time. Always with the elbow to the in the ribs, always stepping on you when you hit the floor. He didn’t even try to hide it. He knew he was dirty and hated by everyone and he took glee in it. Laimbeer vaulted to the top of the villain list with his vicious take down of Larry Bird in the 1987 playoffs. Laimbeer took down Bird with a dirty foul and Bird immediately punched him in the face and started a scrum. After the scrum, the basketball bounced its way to Larry and Larry fired a fastball at Laimbeer’s face and started another scrum. Laimbeer got his comeuppance when the normally mild mannered Robert Parrish delivered a 1-2 punch that took Laimbeer down as The Boston Garden howled with laughter. It was like all of Boston punched him in the face when Parrish took him down. Bill Laimbeer was such a vile player. Probably number 1 on the list. Side note- Parrish didn’t get ejected when punch Laimbeer in the face. Gotta love the 80s.

Peyton Manning

Peyton was just in the way and we didn’t like that. The Brady/Manning rivalry is well known. Peyton was the stat chaser, former Number 1 pick that came from NFL royalty. Peyton had everything handed to him. The media was always on his side and always seemed like they were rooting for him. Our guy, Tom Brady, was the ultimate underdog who earned everything he got. He was the 199th pick and scratched and clawed to make the team and helped lead the Patriots to Super Bowl glory and he took down the media’s darling in the process. Peyton couldn’t win in Foxboro and we revealed in that fact. We were in Peyton’s head and he knew it. We always knew that no matter what Brady was going to come through and Peyton was going to fail. Obviously towards the end Peyton ended up besting the Pats a couple times in a few big spots. Of course Peyton’s dumb little brother ended up handing the Pats two Super Bowl losses and that added to the Manning hating fuel.

Roger Clemens

Last but certainty not least is The Rocket. The worst thing you can do to a person is lie and betray them. That’s exactly what Clemens did to us. He was supposed to be logical heir to Larry Bird as Boston sports hero but in order to become that you have to come through in the championship moments and Clemens didn’t do that. He didn’t close the deal in 1986 World Series and then followed that up with truly horrific post season starts culminating in him getting thrown out in Game 4 of the 1990 ALCS for arguing balls and strikes. The Sox stunk and he got fat and his body started to break down. Red Sox GM Dan Duquette famously said that Roger was in “twilight of his career” and then got in shoved back in his face as Clemens “reinvented” his body and ripped off back to back Cy Young seasons in Toronto. Also it should be noted that Clemens said he wanted to pitch closer to home in Texas and then signed in Toronto. I don’t think those two places are close to each other. The ultimate betrayal was when Clemens forced a trade to the hated New York Yankees and ended up winning a couple of World Series championships. But in the end we ended up winning as, like A-Rod, Clemens got busted for performance enhancing drugs. Rog threw every under the bus including his wife to try to prove his innocence. Other than the Red Sox, Dan Duquette was probably the happiest that Clemens got busted. That “twilight of the career” comment was thrown back in his face so many times over the years.

So there you have it. Four of some the greatest rogues gallery in Boston sports history. The list in endless. You could add Lebron, Kobe, and Roger Goodell. Only Batman and Spider-Man has a greater cast of villains than Boston sports. Luckily our heroes usually prevail against the bad guys.